Air force Alumni

[krc1995]

My 18 year old neice just committed the next 6 year to the Air Force. I am looking for suggestions for a small gift that she may find useful during her basic training. Ideas?

 

BTW - we are so very proud of her!!!

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

Congratulations to your niece! I think she made a great decision joining the military. I'm nearing my 20 year mark in Air Force myself.

 

As for a gift during Basic....forget about it. Uncle Sam will make sure she has all the free "gifts" she needs. All her personal belonging will get locked up when she arrives and she won't get them back until she graduates. Doesn't matter what it is...it's bye-bye. Her instructors will tell her what she needs and when she can buy it.

 

Now if you want to get her a graduation gift, a nice idea would be to present her with a flag flown over her/your respective home states capital commemorating her graduation. And if she doesn't mind it being late, you can request it be flown the day of her graduation. But you have to act now if you want to do that. Can take several weeks to make it happen. But most graduates are just happy to have relatives show up on graduation. Maybe a nice dinner after since there's only so much "choke and puke" you can eat.

 

If you and/or your niece have any questions about the AF in general, feel free to pm. I can even pass along my email to make it easier to communicate.

 

BTW-do you know what her AFSC is going to be?

[krc1995]

Congratulations to your niece! I think she made a great decision joining the military. I'm nearing my 20 year mark in Air Force myself.

 

As for a gift during Basic....forget about it. Uncle Sam will make sure she has all the free "gifts" she needs. All her personal belonging will get locked up when she arrives and she won't get them back until she graduates. Doesn't matter what it is...it's bye-bye. Her instructors will tell her what she needs and when she can buy it.

 

Now if you want to get her a graduation gift, a nice idea would be to present her with a flag flown over her/your respective home states capital commemorating her graduation. And if she doesn't mind it being late, you can request it be flown the day of her graduation. But you have to act now if you want to do that. Can take several weeks to make it happen. But most graduates are just happy to have relatives show up on graduation. Maybe a nice dinner after since there's only so much "choke and puke" you can eat.

 

If you and/or your niece have any questions about the AF in general, feel free to pm. I can even pass along my email to make it easier to communicate.

 

BTW-do you know what her AFSC is going to be?

 

Wow- thanks. So the flag is an actual flag? and that is something that can be requested? She doesn't leave until sometime in Oct or Nov for basic so maybe that is something I could do.

 

Help me out- what is AFSC

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

Typically, when a person retires, the custom is to have a flag flown over the nations capital in honor of their service. What that basically entails however, is they run the flag up the pole, fly it for a minutes then bring the flag back down. You have to remember too, they get hundreds (probably thousands) of requests for flags to be flown over the capital. With a state capital, it may not be as bad. But to answer your question, yes, they fly a flag over the capital (state or nation) and you receive the actual flag. If she doesn't leave for a few months you can probably get the request in now and either request it be flown on the day she enters basic or if you have an idea when she graduates, you can request it be flown that day. Most senators/congressmen can have the flag flown.

 

AFSC=Air Force Specialty Code. It's her job basically. Mine is 1P0X1.

[HUSKER 37]

The complete Army-Navy joke book

[krc1995]

Typically, when a person retires, the custom is to have a flag flown over the nations capital in honor of their service. What that basically entails however, is they run the flag up the pole, fly it for a minutes then bring the flag back down. You have to remember too, they get hundreds (probably thousands) of requests for flags to be flown over the capital. With a state capital, it may not be as bad. But to answer your question, yes, they fly a flag over the capital (state or nation) and you receive the actual flag. If she doesn't leave for a few months you can probably get the request in now and either request it be flown on the day she enters basic or if you have an idea when she graduates, you can request it be flown that day. Most senators/congressmen can have the flag flown.

 

AFSC=Air Force Specialty Code. It's her job basically. Mine is 1P0X1.

 

 

I don't think she has that yet, but maybe? I know last week the AF had presented her five or six different job. One was working on a surveillence plane and I think she liked that one best because she wants to live overseas for as long as she can. I know another was a survivialist instructor. I cannot see her eating live animals.

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

Typically, when a person retires, the custom is to have a flag flown over the nations capital in honor of their service. What that basically entails however, is they run the flag up the pole, fly it for a minutes then bring the flag back down. You have to remember too, they get hundreds (probably thousands) of requests for flags to be flown over the capital. With a state capital, it may not be as bad. But to answer your question, yes, they fly a flag over the capital (state or nation) and you receive the actual flag. If she doesn't leave for a few months you can probably get the request in now and either request it be flown on the day she enters basic or if you have an idea when she graduates, you can request it be flown that day. Most senators/congressmen can have the flag flown.

 

AFSC=Air Force Specialty Code. It's her job basically. Mine is 1P0X1.

 

 

I don't think she has that yet, but maybe? I know last week the AF had presented her five or six different job. One was working on a surveillence plane and I think she liked that one best because she wants to live overseas for as long as she can. I know another was a survivialist instructor. I cannot see her eating live animals.

SERE Instructor...ugh....if she's the cutesy type that's always buying new clothes, SERE instructor is probably not her cup of tea. I've had to complete some SERE training (Survival, Evade, Resistance, Escape) myself for my career and I don't envy those guys at all. Personally, if she's looking to do just 6 years and then separate, medical or computers is the way to go. The training and experience she gets in the AF will pay huge dividends on the outside. If I had it to do over, I probably would have swallowed my pride and tried to get into the medical career field somehow.

 

She may not have her AFSC yet. It took a while for me to get mine before I went into basic. Some folks will actually get their while in basic.